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Support for REF Champions

Support for REF Champions

This is a central reference page for REF Champions and others involved in developing UoA submissions for REF 2021.  It includes links to all documentation relevant to final preparations during 2020, a detailed timeline of key dates, and frequently asked questions from other REF Champions.  The page will be updated regularly.  If there is content you believe should be included, or have further questions, please contact ref@qub.ac.uk.

Links to Key Guidance Documentation

Latest Internal REF Planning Guidance

Staff and Outputs

Impact
Environment
Research England REF Guidance Documentation

 

Outputs

Impact

Environment

January 2021

15 January – Deadline for UoAs to complete metadata spreadsheets and submit to REF Team.

 

31 January – REF Team ‘locks’ access to the REF outputs section of Pure to protect data during testing.

 

31 January - REF Team will issue a report to each UoA detailing current selection. Any further changes in Pure should be directed to c.browne@qub.ac.uk.

28 January - UoAs to submit latest drafts of impact case studies.

School-level review of draft statements in context of review feedback and preparation of further draft.

 

Updated institutional statement and supporting data provided to UoAs.

February 2021

Early Feb - REF Team will finalise data input of outputs metadata to Pure and begin test uploads from Pure to REF submission system.

 

Mid-Feb - REF Team will circulate reports on staff and outputs from the official REF submission system for UoA review. These will detail exactly how information is presented to REF.

 

Mid-Feb - REF Team will circulate a further equality impact assessment based on output selections as of December 2020. (Final EQIA will be completed after the submission).

REF Team complete key administrative tasks:

  • Collation and system input of additional Contextual Data required for each case study 
  • Standardisation of metrics used in each case study to ensure they conform to guidance
  • Formatting of each case study into required template for upload to REF submission system

 

19 February – Deadline for UoAs to have completed further draft and submitted to REF Team.

 

Mid-Late February –

  • REF Team conduct final detailed review of each statement to ensure compliance with guidance, formatting etc. and conduct proofread.
  • Faculties provided with latest draft of each statement to review and feedback to UoAs.

March 2021

Early March - Final amendments to output selections, including changes to metadata advised following reports.

 

Mid-March - Final REF reports for staff and outputs from submission system to be signed off by each Head of School and REF Champion.

Final drafts of impact case studies completed by mid-March to facilitate test upload to REF system.

 

Mid-March: Final versions and report from REF submission to be signed off by each Head of School and REF Champion.

19 March – Deadline for UoAs to have submitted final draft of environment statements to facilitate final checks, test upload to REF submission system.

 

Late March – Upload statements to submission system, final versions and reports signed off by each Head of School and REF Champion.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

This section will be updated regularly with frequently asked questions (FAQs) submitted by REF Champions at Queen's.

This does not replicate the FAQs published separately by Research England, submitted by other institutions, which can be accessed here.

  • If a member of staff who is employed on the census date and eligible for REF subsequently leaves the institution before their monograph is published, would this still be eligible for REF?

    As outlined in paragraph 205 of the ‘Guidance on submissions’, outputs attributed to former staff are only eligible for submission to REF 2021 if they were first made publicly available while the former staff member was employed as Category A eligible at the institution.

  • If a member of staff is on secondment or career break and not being paid on the census date, how should we treat their eligibility?

    If the member of staff is on secondment and is not being paid by the institution on the census date, then secondment rules would apply: 

    • If the individual is on unpaid leave on the census date and is not due to return to their post within 2 years from the date that they went on unpaid leave then they cannot be returned to REF 2021. However, outputs produced before their period of leave, and made publicly available while they were employed as Category A eligible at your HEI, could be submitted as outputs of a former staff member.
    • If an individual is on leave on the census date, but is due to return to their post within to 2 years from the date that they went on unpaid leave then either they, or the member of staff employed to cover their leave, could be submitted to REF 2021 (assuming that they are category A eligible on the census date). If the unpaid leave is less than two years then any outputs first made publicly available while the staff member was on leave would also be eligible for submission, provided that they meet all other relevant eligibility criteria.
    • While only the person on unpaid leave or their replacement can be returned to the REF, and count towards the volume measure, the outputs of both the person on unpaid leave and their replacement can be included in the output pool. For example, if you choose to submit the person on unpaid leave you could still submit the outputs of their replacement as part of the units’ output pool.
  • Can we submit an output which was made available as 'early online' during the REF 2014 period?

    Outputs made available as online first in the previous REF period and made available in final form in the REF 2021 period may be submitted to REF 2021, provided the online first version was not submitted to REF 2014 by any institution. Please refer to paragraph 258 of the ‘Guidance on submissions’ for further information.

  • Where an author has published multiple volumes of the same series, is there a standard rule or practice as to how these should be submitted?

    REF does not specify any rules around submitting specific volumes of a series. You may wish to think about whether the volumes can be seen as standalone or only make sense/make a contribution together. Paragraph 220 of the Guidance on submissions states that “Where two or more research outputs in a submission include significant material in common (for example, a journal article that also appears as a chapter in a book) the sub-panels will assess each output taking account of the common material only once. Where a sub-panel judges that they do not contain sufficiently distinct material and should be treated as a single output, an unclassified score would be given to the ‘missing’ output”.

     

  • Where an author has two pieces in a single journal special issue, can these be submitted as a single output, are we required to submit them separately, or should the entire special issue be submitted as the output with the author’s contribution highlighted? In this case the author contributed both the introduction and conclusion which we consider taken together to be highly significant original research.

    You could submit the introduction and conclusion together as one output. It would be up to the individual institution to decide whether they want to submit the introduction and the conclusion together, or the whole special issue. If you choose to submit the entire issue you would need to consider if the whole thing demonstrated significance, originality and rigour and whether the author has made a material contribution to the entire special issue. If you choose to submit just the introduction/conclusion, you would need to be sure that this output still meets the REF definition of research (copied below, for ease). 

    • For the purposes of the REF, research is defined as a process of investigation leading to new insights, effectively shared.
    • It includes work of direct relevance to the needs of commerce, industry, culture, society, and to the public and voluntary sectors; scholarship ; the invention and generation of ideas, images, performances, artefacts including design, where these lead to new or substantially improved insights; and the use of existing knowledge in experimental development to produce new or substantially improved materials, devices, products and processes, including design and construction. It excludes routine testing and routine analysis of materials, components and processes such as for the maintenance of national standards, as distinct from the development of new analytical techniques. It also excludes the development of teaching materials that do not embody original research.
    • It includes research that is published, disseminated or made publicly available in the form of assessable research outputs, and confidential reports (as defined in paragraph 261).
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